Android 5.1 is still only available on a limited number of Android One phones, but a few interesting tweaks are already on display. One feature that seems tailor-made for Android One has to do with the dual-SIM capabilities. Android 5.1 includes the ability to set a different dialer theme color for each SIM so you'll know which one you're using to place calls.

There was no native support for dual-SIM features in Android 4.4, so any previous implementations were the doing of OEMs. There are a few devices with similar features, but they don't look nearly as nice (ex. Acer Liquid Z500). Android 5.0 has some dual-SIM goodies, but it doesn't look like the themes are included. On 5.1, you can access the color options in the SIM card menu of the main system settings.

We won't know for sure if this is a stock Android 5.1 feature or something exclusive to Android One until 5.1 is in AOSP and we see it installed on dual-SIM phones that aren't part of the One program. For most phones, this feature probably won't be exposed anyway.

The phone app keeps disappearing from overview. (Another bug?)
However the dialer's response and animations are much quicker and smoother than on my Nexus running 5.0. I hope we get to see 5.1 soon :)

Matthew Merrick

And that's with native screen recording on a mediocre mediatek soc. That's damn impressive. The speed Boost android has been promised for so long, finally teapot showing up.

Max, el Slowpoke

I wonder if Android 5.1 is like a Honeycomb closed release between Google and evil Mediatek.

pfmiller

They never released the source for honeycomb because it was a mess and unusable for phones. Does 5.1 look unusable on phones to you?

Rob S

correction, Google did release the source code for Honeycomb, but very late together with the source code for ICS. But yeah, the argumentation was that they didn't wanted Honeycomb custom roms to appear for phones because it didn't had a phone interface.

The G3 has better specs, so it's totally possible. Just look for a nice, clean 5.0 AOSP-Rom :)

Armando Rodriguez

60FPS videos of Lollipop animations are AWESOME!

whispy_snippet

Yeah aren't they! I wish my Nexus 5 ran at 60fps...

Simon Belmont

It probably will with Android 5.1. If MediaTek powered Android One devices can look this good, then a Snapdragon 800 with the same optimizations should look fabulous.

I really think Google did a once over on the animation pipeline in Android 5.1. Looks silky smooth and I can't wait to have it on my devices.

whispy_snippet

I hope so but I seriously doubt it.

Simon Belmont

Why wouldn't it? I'm honestly curious what your thought process is.

Android One is rather less powerful than even a mid-range 2013 phone. So, any optimizations seen on it, should show up in spades on more potent hardware.

whispy_snippet

Because, I'm sad to say, Google has a terrible track record when it comes to UI fluidity. They've been promising butter and jank-free experiences for years and while things have improved, they still lag behind iOS and even Windows Phone in this area (the Nexus 5 on Kit Kat was very close to iOS levels but Lollipop has fucked it all up again).

It seems obvious to me that there's no silver bullet for totally jank free performance on Android. I'm sure 5.1 will incrementally improve things as we see with every year of Android development. But total butter? I just don't see it happening.

There's been too many broken promises. Fluidity is just something Google clearly isn't very good at. On balance I still prefer the power and flexibility of Android over the competition, but butter is something I've just about given up on. You can't have it all.

Simon Belmont

I've used WP and iOS devices (own both, actually), and they experience jank at times, too. All operating systems do at times. None are perfect. But, I understand your point of view, and respect it. For my tastes, I feel Android and WP actually handle the UI the best, but that's just me. iOS has some weirdness with the iPhone 6 Plus because it downscales to 1080p from a higher resolution, but that's not inherent in all iPhones (but I've seen SOME jank occasionally in all iPhones and iPads, etc). It is what it is.

I guess, for me, Android has come a LOOOONG way since I started using it (Android 1.5 Cupcake), so it feels pretty damned smooth to me already. Obviously perceived smoothness is very subjective, though. But, Android has made huge strides in it in the last 2-3 years, IMO. I don't think there really is a magic bullet to make any OS perfectly jank free and 100% smooth. Something is always going to contribute to minor interruptions ONCE in a while (or more often if you're using TouchWiz or something), My main thing is that I'm glad that Google is at least continuing to work on the problem and continually optimize and at least try to mitigate it. Anyway, like you, I choose Android as my daily driver because of its vast customizabiility, and that it just does what I want it to. As for smoothness never being 100% perfect, I guess it just doesn't bother me as much as some people (but everyone is allowed their own opinions.)

whispy_snippet

I'm not denying iOS and Windows Phone jank sometimes. They definitely do as I've witnessed it myself. But I doubt many people would say a defining criticism of these platforms is lack of fluidity. For Android, however, I think it still is.

I've been using Android for a long time myself - since Android 2.1 Eclair. Over the years Android has offered power, customisation and an ability to get shit done that iOS and other platforms simply haven't. But along with this, Android has carried a horrible laggy/janky monkey on its back and it's still there in 2015. It's better than it used to be. Much better. But with quad-core processors, piles or RAM and capable GPUs we still see regular stutter, lag and dropped frames in tasks as simple as swiping through home screens. This sort of thing should've been stamped out years ago.

Google has been promising butter and animations for 60fps for what feels like forever. Until I actually see it with my own eyes I just don't believe they can do it.

It's almost as if 5.1 on Android One was supposed to be the general released state of 5.0.

makapav

#Honeycomb

GJ

Any idea if the colors are shown on incoming calls too?

RamitSuri

Yes, they are.

Rob H.

This has been in other dual sim phones pre-lollipop. The dual sim Z3 comes to mind. YouTube dual sim android. The option is there in the dialer and for texts to choose which sim to send the text or make the call on.

Nathan

SHUT UP AND JUST FIX THE MEMORY LEAK ALREADY

Jose Romero

Its fixed they are just waiting to release it. I don't know what they're waiting for though, probably to be extra sure the updates for Nexus are good.

deltatux

Still to this day I have no clue why people are complaining about this. Is this an inherent bug on the Nexus builds because it runs just fine on my OnePlus One without any indications of a memory leak...

POY

Works for me fine on Note 3. Maybe they should uninstall some crappy apps they use

Dr. IT

memory issue is acknowledged by Google. That's IT.

Guest

Up time 107hrs. I haven't felt the need to restart my phone. I'd say it's fixed. Unless, it wasn't supposed to be there on Android One phones in the first place.

RichardG867

The dual-SIM support code on Android One (and Android One only, not AOSP) is made by Mediatek, but it seems Google made slight improvements to it.

I just wish it comes like this for the Moto G, instead of Motorola's own implementation. And besides that, it would be great if there was an option to choose the SIM card in Google Messenger and Hangouts...